Cheers! If you're here, there's a good chance that you at least skimmed the March thread. In summary, it was fantastic and you should go check out the entries.
This is a 7DRL festival (not contest, since there's no winner)! That means exactly what it says on the tin- entrants have seven days to start and finish a buggy, non-optomized, incomplete roguelike. There is no barrier of quality; it's all about getting your programming juices flowing! You can enter whenever you like in the month of April. Just post when you're starting, maybe some progress reports, and let us know when you've finished! At the end of the month, I'll post a listing of all the entrants, as well as accolades.
So, without further ado, here are the festival specifics!
----------
Administrated By: me, biag. Post if you have any questions, or if you want to help out!
Entry Deadline: I'll be accepting entries all through the month of April. PM me a download link, or post it here (for a good file host, I recommend Mediafire)!
Theme: character. Like
Balrog's distinctive "Huzzah!", your challenge is to create a system that facilitates distinctive characters. Catchphrases, advancement paths, backstory generators, it's all fair game!
Specific Guidelines: -"Distinctive characters" essentially means something that is either unique to that specific game (like a Forgotten Beast), or a character that shows up in every game (like Crawl's Sigmund). This could be interpreted as a programming challenge or a writing challenge. Or both!
-Remember, uniqueness in NPCs is awesome.
-Be creative!
-Guidelines are flexible; above all, try to make something you want to make! This is a starting point.
Additional: not required, but when you put up your "Finished!" post, it would be neat if you also posted any interesting problems you came across and how you solved them. You may be as open or secretive about your development as you wish.
----------
Any questions? Post them here, or PM me! Any suggestions? Post them here, or PM me! Interested in signing up? Post here! Don't PM me about that one.
Tutorials, Tilesets, Libraries, Etc.The Roguelike Development Megathread has pretty much all the resources you could possibly want for this,
here.However, I know it looks a bit intimidating, so here are some of my personal favorites. Feel free to suggest your own!
Roguebasin is basically the best thing ever for roguelike devs. Pages and pages of tutorials, examples, and even unused design notes! If you haven't been there already, go now. You'll thank me for it.
Python is my language of choice, mostly because it's pretty. It can be a tad slow, but that doesn't matter much for roguelikes, unless they become massive like DF. The Python site has loads of well-written documentation.
C++ is industry-standard for pretty much anything. That site (reportedly, I don't know C++ so I've never been there) has some helpful stuff.
libtcod is my library of choice. It's designed specifically for roguelikes; its functions deal primarily with rendering to the console, handling mouse & keyboard input, and pathfinding. Basically, it takes all the tricky-but-boring stuff about programming roguelikes and does it for you.
This is a brilliant tutorial for Python and libtcod; it's perfect for complete novices and Python pros alike. I can't believe I actually used that line.
libjcsi is supposedly similar to libtcod, but in Java.
And finally,
Oryx's Graphics Set and
Open Game Art are great resources for those in need of tilesets. Remember to give credit!
Some Questions That Will Probably Become Frequently AskedCan I work as part of a team?Absolutely!
Can I put in more than one entry?As long as they're separate pieces of code, sure.
What about assets- fonts, tilesets, music, etc.? Do I have to do those in the 72 hours, too?It depends. You can use stuff you've created outside the 72 hours as long as you make it available to everyone; no cheating! If you don't want to share, then you must make it inside the time frame.
Can I reuse code from previous projects?The traditional answer is "Everything must be typed within the time frame." So, the official mantra is the Everything Must Be Typed Within The Time Frame, and you can interpret that however you want.
Some people have had the idea of using the time to add a feature to their already-existing project, and then specifying what they actually added within the time limit; this is totally fine. It's a pretty laid-back festival.
Are there prizes?No. There aren't awards, either- I won't be saying someone got first place, or whatever. On the other hand, I will be highlighting projects that I think handled something really well. Again, I won't be awarding myself any of those. If you'd like to help "judge," pop me a PM and we'll talk about it!
Now get ye to yer code editors of choice!